First published in the Quoted Cleantech Newsletter December 2010. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd 2010

 Canada’s ARISE Technologies Corporation is an Ontario-based firm focused on the development of proprietary technologies for the manufacture of high-efficiency photovoltaic cells and the production of low-cost, high-purity silicon for PV applications. ARISE also supplies turnkey PV solar energy systems for solar farms and rooftop installations (its original business).

Over the years, the firm has striven to expand back through its supply chain in order to achieve some control over the supply of the components and raw materials used in its finished products.

This has led to the company’s operating a manufacturing plant in Bischofswerda, Germany, where its PV Cell Division produces solar cells. The division is developing proprietary technology with a target of achieving a mass production of high-efficiency (greater than 20%) PV cells.

ARISE’s PV Silicon Division owns a process, based on a simplified chemical vapour deposition technique, which is designed to produce silicon at 7N-plus purity (greater than 99.99999%) for PV cell applications.

PV Systems, the firm’s third division, has been supplying PV solutions for solar farms and rooftop installations throughout North America since ARISE was founded in 1996.

The company generated revenues of $54.4 million during the first nine months of 2010, compared with $20.4 million during the equivalent period of 2009. The firm’s net loss was $15.3 million compared with $33.8 million last year.

ARISE’s PV Cells Division began shipping to PV module makers in June 2008. In the third quarter of this year, it accounted for 89% of ARISE’s total revenues. The divison’s initial production line uses turnkey, off-the-shelf technology and has been designed to produce approximately 40MW of PV cells per annum with a targeted average cell efficiency of 15%.

In March 2009, ARISE manufactured its first PV cells on the Bischofswerda plant’s second production line. Since then, PV cells have been shipped to customers for evaluation, and efficiencies achieved by this line have met the company’s target of up to 17%. The PV cells produced on this line use a proprietary process technology and are expected to achieve targeted efficiencies of 18% once the line is fully optimised.

ARISE’s PV Cells Division benefits from long term arrangements both for its supply of silicon wafers and for the sale of its own products. The company has signed purchase agreements with Sino-American Silicon Products and newly-listed NASDAQ company ReneSola that last until December 2017.

Meanwhile, ARISE has entered into a sales agreement with Germany’s Solon that will see it sell 212MW of PV cells to Solon over a five year period that began in Q2 2008. The company has similar agreements, for lesser amounts of PV cells, with two other German firms: aleo solar and Asola Advanced and Automotive Solar Systems.

The PV Cells Division is also involved in a $15 million joint research project to develop high-efficiency solar technologies, including heterojunction cells and proprietary deposition processes in partnership with the University of Toronto. ARISE is contributing one-third of the $15 million over five years, with the balance coming from the university and an Ontario Research Fund Research Excellence grant from the Ministry of Research and Innovation.

The firm is also involved in other research projects, and in October last year it entered into an arrangement with Scheuten Solar Cells to create a PV cell Technology Centre in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

ARISE’s PV Silicon Division is at a pre-revenue stage and so has not yet contributed to the firm’s total sales. It is developing a proprietary process to produce silicon which is of sufficient purity to be used in the production of high-efficiency PV cells.

This Silicon Refining Furnace (SiRF) process is expected to produce high purity (7N+) polysilicon feedstock at costs that are significantly below those using the conventional Siemens process. ARISE’s aim is to use the SiRF process to give the company control over the supply of silicon required for its PV cell production, as well as providing cost and quality advantages.

In 2008, the PV Silicon Division began building a silicon feedstock pilot plant at a leased facility in Kitchener, Canada, with an initial planned annual capacity of up to 50 tonnes and the potential to expand to 400 tonnes. However, the scheme was halted in 2009 due to cash flow issues. The firm is currently looking to secure additional financing for the plant or for a partner that can contribute to funding the project.

ARISE’s PV Systems Division is focused on leveraging the Ontario Goverment’s feed-in tariff programme, while securing suitable partners for large scale solar installations.

Ontario currently provides feed-in tariffs on a sliding scale of approximately C$0.80 to C$0.44 per kilowatt-hour, depending upon the size of the project, with projects greater than 10MW receiving the  higher amount.   

So far during 2010, the division has won contracts to supply a 150kW PV rooftop solar system to Ontario’s Region of Waterloo, with the system being installed at the Regional Operations Centre in Cambridge, Ontario, and to supply eleven Ontario school boards with specialised solar systems. The latter deal is part of the Ontario Green Schools Pilot/Initiative and the company will provide a total of 110kW of solar rooftop power.

In June of this year ARISE announced that it had established a joint venture with Sky Solar to provide engineering, procurement and contracting services for solar projects under the Ontario FiT scheme.  Sky Solar will provide operational funding to the new entity, while staff from both ARISE’s PV Systems Division and Sky Solar will deliver the services to customers in Ontario.

Sales from the PV Systems Division amounted to 11% of total revenues during Q3 2010.

In November 2010, ARISE closed a $1.75 million bridge loan to provide working capital financing. The firm’s shares are listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt exchange.

Market: Toronto

Symbol: APV

Price: C$0.20

12-month high/low: C$0.47/C$0.16

Market cap: C$39m

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